The United Kingdom left the European Union on January 31st, 2020 and the transition period ended on December 31st, 2020.
The United Kingdom has transposed the EU Regulation on Credit Rating Agencies into national law via the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) being the regulator of UK-registered and certified credit rating agencies (CRAs).
Similar to the EU, the FCA makes available the following two databases:
Registered or Certified Rating Agencies
The following CRAs are currently registered or certified in the UK:
- A.M. Best Europe, Rating Services Limited
- ARC Ratings
- Creditreform Rating AG (certified)
- DBRS Ratings Limited
- Egan-Jones Ratings Company (certified)
- Fitch Ratings Limited
- HR Ratings de Mexico (certified)
- Kroll Bond Rating Agency UK Limited
- Japan Credit Rating Agency (certified)
- Moody’s Investors Service Limited
- S&P Global Ratings UK Limited
- Scope Ratings UK Limited
- The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited
UK based CRAs may endorse ratings issued by its European affiliates as well as EU based CRAs may endorse ratings issued by the UK affiliates. The UK FCA and EUs ESMA have both undertaken the “as stringent as” assessment in order to allow such an endorsement.
Indicative Mapping of Credit Ratings to Regulatory Scales
Based on information available at the Bank of England as Prudential Authority, the United Kingdom will use the same mapping of ECAI ratings as applicable in the European Union currently. The table below summarizes the mapping:
UK market shares
In November 2022, the FCA published its first Market shares report for 2021.
